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Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

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Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#101
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix did a pretty bad job with Death Note. Willam Dafoe was a good cast, but the same cannot be said of the rest.

It's almost like there's some force of nature making animated-to-live adaptations terrible. There are a few exceptions, though. I think Netflix did kind of OK on Erased (僕だけがいない街). The first movie that was made from that great source material was excruciatingly bad.

>It's almost like there's some force of nature making animated-to-live adaptations terrible.

I enjoyed 2015 TV version of Death Note. I mean, it was quite cheesy and deviated from the source material, but I still had fun watching it.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#102
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on the songs being aggresively pushed by record labels, it seems that the ultimate goals of mainstream music industry are: - To glorify violence, substance abuse, disrespect of women, domination behavior, anti-intellectualism. - To reinforce racial stereotypes, including fear of minorities. - To make people superficial. Songs are an effective way to deliver a message to be repeated over and over and over again…

>it seems that the ultimate goals of mainstream music industry are: [...] Songs are an effective way to deliver a message to be repeated over and over and over again until people break and assimilate the message. It sounds like you're saying that the music industry is engaged in a conspiracy to change people's behavior. Is this a correct characterization? If so, is there any evidence for this conspiracy, or some plau…

Conspiracy may be a little strong, but if you look at talk radio it’s pretty obvious that a formula was discovered that maximizes roi for the segment.

Music isn’t much different, there are just more variants. The goal is engagement, not social outcomes. Think YouTube recommendations, but slower motion.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#103

Spotify has definitely changed how I listen to music over the years. I have my core segments, but I'd say that 33% of my time on Spotify is just stuff that I bump into for random of reasons: a music beef between artists I don't listen to, stories from friends with different tastes in music, a news article about a band in the 50s, etc. I find myself listening to the music to give context to the stories I bump into. An…

>Wrecks havoc on my music suggestions though

Netflix and spotify have definitely not solved suggestions yet. I still struggle to get either service to get me what I want.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#105
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WAP.

I got curious and listened to it, and after listening to that load of rubbish, I simply don't feel connected with society anymore. Do people actually listen to this and like it, or is it just the perceived shock value that counts?

I don't like the song much. It feels, as a straight guy, like a record label is manipulating me - using my sexuality as lever to increase their stream count.

On the other hand - it's just bawdiness. Humorous role play. It's not as if it's a new invention

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#106
post #47
post #10

This article says that the Top 40 has dropped from 35mm to 30mm plays on a Wednesday. Then it says: "The decline is likely partially the result of an overall decrease in streaming after Covid-19 hit the US, due to the absence of people listening to music on commutes and in stores. But it’s not just that. The biggest hits are declining, while the streaming of smaller hits remains about the same." Seems like it could b…

Yeah I agree. I anticipate some amount of people still discover music on the radio (even pop mega hits you have to hear the first time somewhere), then go seek it out on spotify. I haven't much been in a car, thus haven't heard the radio, in 7 months. I have no idea what's on the top 40 right now.

> I haven't much been in a car, thus haven't heard the radio, in 7 months.

What's the connection between being in a car and listening to the radio?

Do people not generally have radios in their homes where you live? And you must have a phone or laptop to be typing this where you could listen to the radio!

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#107
post #5

Personally, I used to be able to listen to a large portion of the top 50 on Spotify without skipping too many. As of late last year, though, I've found that the top 10 are almost exclusively songs made popular on TikTok. I can't stand to listen to these songs, not because I necessarily dislike the songs (or TikTok for that matter), but because there are 15-30s sections of the song that I have heard dozens of times, p…

In a lot of TikTok songs, the 15-30 seconds of the song that you've heard dozens of times is the best part of the song, with the rest of the piece being rather dry and bland. "Hit or miss, I guess you never miss huh" and "I'm already Tracer" are my quintessential examples of this.

Songs are constructed that way nowadays; iirc Old Town Road or one of those were crafted in such a way that it's missing a hook at the end, and the hook is just over 30 seconds (or 1 minute) long, making people more likely to replay it for the hook and for the song to reach the threshold to be considered "played" on services like Spotify, artificially boosting their statistics / popularity. Can't find a source right away though, so take my claim with a grain of salt.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#108
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it seems that the ultimate goals of mainstream music industry are: [...] Songs are an effective way to deliver a message to be repeated over and over and over again until people break and assimilate the message. It sounds like you're saying that the music industry is engaged in a conspiracy to change people's behavior. Is this a correct characterization? If so, is there any evidence for this conspiracy, or some plau…

Many conspiracies can be just explained through emergent behavior. For example, there could be demand for that music, and the labels are just creating content to respond to that demand... without any ethical considerations about what they're promoting, that is. But to be honest, a conspiracy of some kind could be an explanation, who knows. For some people, there are substantial tangible, material benefits to dumbing…

In case anyone is paying attention to this conspiracy theory garbage, I suggest you look at the actual history of particular genres of popular music, especially of black origin, and how it was routinely suppressed. I only found out recently that Daddy Yankee (you may have heard of Despacito) had a lot of trouble with reggaeton being banned early on: https://nacla.org/news/reggaeton-nation

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#109

> While blockbuster movies are only growing in importance... Obviously, there have been no real blockbusters released this year. I don’t have evidence, but for me it seems like indie movies are thriving. The Streamers are all pouring money into original movies—I can’t think of a single movie that Netflix, Prime, or Hulu has produced that was a sequel.

Streaming has also focused a lot on serial content. Lots of those titles have had multiple seasons. One season is easily 3-4 features worth of content. The feature is not the end-all it used to be.

Yup, the main statistic with streaming services is long-term engagement; a film is just an hour and a half, a series is 10 hours stretched out over either one day or a few months, depending on the viewer. What's important for Netflix is that they keep their subscribers.

I think this is also why they're lenient with sharing accounts; people are less likely to cancel their subscription when someone else may still be using it.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#110

Spotify has definitely changed how I listen to music over the years. I have my core segments, but I'd say that 33% of my time on Spotify is just stuff that I bump into for random of reasons: a music beef between artists I don't listen to, stories from friends with different tastes in music, a news article about a band in the 50s, etc. I find myself listening to the music to give context to the stories I bump into. An…

I've tried switching to Apple Music for a little while to try and change things up, but they don't seem to have the generated playlists, recommendations and networks that Spotify seems to have. I switched back within a week or two.

I do sometimes miss my 'old' collection of music (it's still in itunes), but pretty much everything in there is found in Spotify as well (exceptions being things like early demos the artists themselves aren't proud of).

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